Tough Guise –
critique by the
Icelandic group The documentary movie Tough Guise is about how men feel like they have to put up a front or a mask to fit into society. It portrays the connection between violence and masculinity in society and violence and mail dominance in the media. The movie begins by showing a clip from The wizard of Oz as a metaphor for how men have a mask similar to the one the wizard has, pretending to be something they are not, for example strong, powerful and scary. The movie also talks about how most murders are committed by men. Men commit 85% of murders and 95% of domestic violence. The Movie discusses how children are shot by their fellow students in American schools, which is a big issue and is happening repeatedly. According to the Movie, the media, when reporting the shooting incidences, talk about children shooting other children. Jackson Katz argues that this is not true rather that these are boys shooting their fellow students and that it is related to masculinity or the lack of it. By choosing the word
hildre
i stead of boys the media is
deliberately avoiding addressing the issue of the violence of boys. (Massacres like these do not happen nearly as often in other countries as they do in America so maybe it is the gun culture or easy access to guns that are one of the main causes for these murders.)
The images of men as action figures for young boys have changed a lot in a few decades. For example, the muscles of these superheros have become bigger and bigger through the years. (The same can be said about Barbie dolls, where the differences etwee a 90 s Bar ie a d Bratz doll are significant.) The movie also talks about how men who are Hispanic or black are often under much more pressure to show that they are tough and masculine and often white boys take up this urban black look. It is a sad fact that becoming tough and brutal is often the only choice coloured men in poor neighbourhoods have. Sports in America are also very masculine oriented (a lot more than in Europe) a d ofte pare ts use the phrase play like a
a . The movie
also shows the issue that men can have when it comes to showing emotions and the part stereotypical images the media portrays plays in this as they seem to discourage men to do open up and be honest about how they feel ehi d the tough guise. Tough guys are supposed to keep their feelings bottled up i side a d take it like a
a .
The movie is a bit dated but its ending shows clips from new movies and media that show that this is changing to the better and that there is hope that the tough guise image is dwindling. We would like to think that things are improving now that toughness is not as important as it is portrayed in the movie, that it is not unmanly to show emotions and that you are vulnerable and concepts like metro sexuality have become popular and accepted.